GWL 6th June 1917

“Monstrous hot day; blowing like the devil, dust half way up to heaven. In fact about as beastly as anybody could want. Thank goodness we have something to drink. We had some new potatoes to-day. Quite good they were. No mail for some little time; we have hopes that to-morrow may bring something. Boche planes over nearly every day. Flying very high & dropping an occasional bomb. They seem to have done in Ostend pretty well.

“It is an awful job to prevent milk going sour now. The small cats don’t seem to mind though. One dashed off into the office the other day with a fly paper lapped firmly round her stern. We washed her in methylated spirits and got most of it off. Poor cat was rather depressed for the rest of the day. To-day has been rather like those dust storms in Tientsin. Up in the hills here, it is quite moderately all right, but down on the road you can hardly see a hundred yards. Wen are very pleased with our hut. It is quite cool and wind-proof.”

This letter refers to action at Ostend. The main bombardment of Ostend occurred on June 5th with a number of shells landing in the harbour with damage to a small number of German ships.

The probable site of the Divisional HQ in the hills behind Salonica where George’s Machine Gun School was located, taken May 2017 by RP.